Our conflicts are real; social media ramps them up

There are long-simmering conflicts and divisions in Detroit. Sometimes they boil over.

But mix social media into those conflicts and you have a uniquely toxic brew that inflames a conflict rather than providing a release valve.

The Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce and the black-focused National Business League are trying to calm down a bitter dispute that started with a Facebook post. Which led to more back-and-forth insults and racial slurs that were ugly on both sides, ugly enough that I don't want to repeat them.

Crain's was pulled into the fray when reporter Sherri Welch wrote stories on the controversy because it involved public officials and a prominent business group. She interviewed the key players on all sides, including a member of Detroit's charter commission who made one of the inflammatory posts.

Sherri's story didn't directly quote the racial slurs the commissioner was responding to. By the time of the interview, those comments had been removed from the Facebook thread, but screenshots later emerged.

Soon, a meme began circulating on social media with Sherri's photo, this time accusing Crain's of ignoring hate on the Chaldean side.

Some black residents say the shopkeepers — owners of grocery stores, gas stations and convenience stores — exploit black neighborhoods and take dollars out without doing enough for the community. They accuse store owners and employees of wrongfully killing black people.

Some Chaldean Americans say they often are threatened in their stores, which in many neighborhoods are the only source of groceries. Shop owners, they say, keep guns for protection. Both sides cite prejudice and racism.

These are legitimate issues that deserve discussion and solutions.

But a social media punching match is more likely to turn into something tragic than lead to positive change.

The African-American and Chaldean chambers are right to call for a timeout on increasingly heated social media posts that in one case offered up a map for people to find the Chaldean Chamber offices.

Ratcheting up the rhetoric is so easy on social media. And the medium has also provided a platform to spread incorrect and intentionally misleading "news" — as we've seen on a national and international scale.

Google and Facebook both responded to perceptions of the toxicity of our always-online culture in their Super Bowl ads. Google's was a tear-jerker focused on memories of a marriage, and Facebook pushed the idea of its groups uniting people rather than dividing them.

Out in the "real" world of social media, it can be hard to see signs of that togetherness.

The 2020 election is already at full volume and vitriol. And seemingly every week there is a story about some celebrity or public official tweeting something they soon have reason to regret. Foreign governments are infiltrating Facebook groups to rile people up and keep the controversy flowing to destabilize our society.

And in situations that are already tense, social media's immediacy makes it easy to ratchet up the rhetoric to dangerous proportions. Social media lets us marinate in our chosen outrage, 24/7. Click, type, boom, repeat. It's a reliable hit of adrenaline to which we are addicted. Before you hit "reply," keep in mind that you may not be responding to a real person.

As election season ramps up, it's probably going to get worse before it gets better. We would all do well to slow down and talk face to face.